Walinsky Demands State Act on Migrant Conditions

ROCHESTER, Aug. 17—Citing dozens of health‐code violations in migrant camps in a three county area near here, Adam Walinsky today demanded that the state empanel a special grand jury to “seek out the private citizens and public of ficials who violate the laws which protect the migrant wor kers.”

Mr. Walinsky, the Democra tic candidate for State At torney General, issued his at tack on the state's “nonenforce ment” of the laws affecting migrants after a quiet early_ morning tour of a half‐dozen labor camps in Wayne County.

Accompanied by several aides and a reporter, Mr. Wa linsky drove past miles of graceful apple orchards and viewed befouled privys be hind ramshackle, fly ‐infested housing for the workers that contained numerous safety vio lations.

State Is Criticized

“All the apparatus of the New York State government seems to have been unable to find or act against these open violations of its own laws,” Mr. Walinsky said in a statement.

For several weeks youthful workers for the candidate have been quietly inspecting camps in Wayne, Monroe and Orleans counties cataloguing health vio lations and photographing in fractions such as dangerously placed stoves and faulty wiring.

Their findings were con tained in a long report that Mr. Walinsky has sent to the local offices of the State Health De partment and the Attorney General.

In a telephone interview, Attorney General Louis 3. ‐Lef kowitz, Mr. Walinsky's oppo nent in the November election, said he had not yet received the report from his Rochester office and would have no com ment at this time.

Hafner Also to Wait

Similarly, Dr. William G. Hafner, the head of the Health Department's regional office here, said he had not received the report.

Dr. Hafner said there was “adequate staff” to supervise the migrant program, adding: “Let's be honest. What may appear to be a violation t3 layman may not be a violation of the actual code.

“I'm not making any judg ment,” Dr. Hafner said. “I wasn't given the courtesy of notice of the visits and there fore I have no comment to make.”

Most of the migrants in this area have finished picking cherries and are In a static period as they wait for the apple harvesting to begin around the first of September.

At Mr. Walinsky's first stop, the Thompson & Sons Farm Labor Camp in Ontario Town ship, Mrs. Rosalie Cummings, the mother of seven children with another on the way, was raking debris from in front of a cramped hovel that houses the nine‐member family.

Conditions Described

The interior of the dwelling seemed little more than a sea of bedraggled bedding. Scores of flies buzzed about, more fortunate than the ones that all but obliterated two strands of flypaper hanging from the ceiling.

“We've picked four days in all,” Mrs. Cummings said of the family's eight weeks in the camp.

Mr. Walinsky asked Mr. Thompson if it was all right to look around. Mr. Thompson seemed uncertain until a pickup truck pulled up near his car and a stocky man emerged.

“I'm an officer — I want identification or I'll haul you in,” the man said. Then, he added: “Are you affiliated with a union or anything? Are you connected with a liberal thing? Do you belong to the Commu nist party?”

Group Is Asked to Go

“They, sure as hell didn't come here to praise you up,” Mr. Thompson said before ask ing the party to leave.

In the town of Sodus the group visited two camps run by the DeBadts family. One of the DeBadts’ camps was visited three years ago by the late Sen ator Robert F. Kennedy, whom Mr. Walinsky worked for, and by Senator Jacob K. Javits. Both. Senators deemed the facilities at that time “appalling and dis graceful.”

Today, in one camp, the wom en's privy was filthy and there was seepage on the ground run ning from the men's outhouse. A single algae‐covered spigot served as the water supply for about 20 people. In the other,: the migrants were housed in a long, narrow barracks. In the common kitchen, cardboard was nailed at the juncture where’ the ceiling and the walls met.

“Nothing's changed,” said Dr. ‘John Radebaugh, who had ac companied Mr. Javits and Mr. Kennedy three years ago.

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A version of this archives appears in print on August 19, 1970, on Page 26 of the New York edition with the headline: Walinsky Demands State Act on Migrant Conditions. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe